Hope Church LV Sermons
Work :: On Purpose
Good morning. Maybe we should just let Zeke preach. Yeah. But he's not going to. Just kidding. Zeke is a man of God. I love Zeke's heart. And just a true man of God. Turn in your Bibles if you have them with you today to Colossians chapter 3. We're going to finish that chapter today. We're actually going to take one verse into chapter 4. Over the past few weeks, we've been in a series. In fact, this is a fourth week called On Purpose. Marriage, Family and Work. And this last message today is going to be it for this. It's about work. And you say, "Man, I'm down today. I really came here hoping to get some encouragement, Tom." And you're going to go talking about the thing that I'm not doing today. And I'm glad that I'm not. But what I really want to focus on, you know, past events over the past few weeks, to be honest with you, over the past few years, if you've been here long enough, you've heard him say probably what I'm going to say right here. He says it like this. Living the Christian life is not me trying to live for Jesus, but it's literally Jesus living his life through me. It's not up to me. It's up to him. He's changing us to show himself through us. And so today what I want to encourage you with, just straight from the scripture here, is that the way we live really does matter on purpose. And every aspect, for those of you who have a job in some capacity, maybe it's a part-time job, maybe you're between jobs, so I want to be sensitive about that today, too. And maybe you've lost your job and you haven't found a job yet, or maybe you're working 60 hours a week. I don't know. I mean, for those of you who are just working regular jobs, though, you're like, "Tom, this is really the one day I'd really rather not talk about work. That's fine." But the Bible does say that practical living for us is a reality. Amen. If you don't say it, I will. And here's what I mean by that, that God has placed you purposefully where you are for Him. Don't just be a Christian in this room, or in your small group, or online when you're trying to win somebody to Christ. Or just now and then, but all the time, like God has a purpose. I mean, what we've seen is, Paul talked about marriage and then he talked about parenting. He talked about how to be a husband and really what that one thing that you're supposed to do and the focus on would be, you know, husbands love your wives. And he said, "Wives, be subject to your husbands." And then he said, "Children obey your parents." And then he finishes it off with what we talked about a couple weeks ago with parents or fathers. Don't exacerbate your kids. And so there are things that we need to know about our everyday practical life that God expects out of us. And one of the things, and we're going to talk about it today, is this issue of our job. Whether we're an employee or an employer, and you say, "Tom, I think you're stretching it because I've read ahead." And basically, this is talking about slaves and masters and why I do want to hit that part and really try to help us to understand something a little bit better today so that we don't read things into the Scripture instead of getting what God has for us out. It's really not about slavery at all. As bad as it is and as sinful as slavery is and as wrong as it was and is even today, that's not what this passage is about. But I believe that there are some principles that we can talk about through this passage, and I'm going to explain a lot of that, that can help us as people who work. I wanted to start off today because I want to put this in your mind with a quote from a guy that we really hold dear. He's actually with the Lord now. His name was Claude Cranford and you hear Pastor Vance quote him a lot and Pastor Travis. But here's the quote I really want you to wrap your head around before we read the Scripture and before we really dive into the word to mind that out today. Claude said this, he said, "The greatest outward sign of a mature Jesus follower will be the reaction they have to authority." In seminary, they taught us that if we waited, there's an effect. So I'm waiting. I want you to read it to yourself again. I'll read it. "The greatest outward sign of a mature Jesus follower will be in their reaction, the reactions they have to authority." Are you a person? Any authority, just absolutely greats on who you are. Stops you from doing and being. You believe who God wants and wanted you to be. Because the truth is, is that God has given us authority for our good. And if you want to show at the very least that you are an immature follower of Jesus, rebellious authority. You say, "Tom, there are instances." Forget the instances, all right? In general, I mean if your kids felt the way we do sometimes, mom and dad, they don't know, I'm not going to. But you say, "Always obey me," right? Listen, if you want to know if you're a mature follower of Jesus, look at the way that you react to authority. When it comes to the importance of falling under authority, I think it's important for us, first of all, because we are talking about slaves and masters here to put everything in context. So I want to be briefer than I was in the first service about doing that, but I want you to understand kind of where we are in the context of which we're writing. Paul is writing a church that he had started in the city of Colossae. And I want you to picture this, okay? I want to kind of paint a picture for you of this church. This church was made up of, listen to this, first generation Christians. Basically, none of them grew up in a Christian home because Paul had had taken his missionary journey through there. It started this church. And inside this church, we don't know how many there were. There weren't tons of people, but there were people in the church. And one of the things they struggled with was this issue of practical living, obviously, because he touches on it, right? Husbands, wives, parents and children, slaves and masters, all right? So I want you to picture this. Inside that congregation, there were husbands whose wives weren't Christians. Just like today. Inside that congregation, there were wives whose husbands weren't followers of Jesus. Just like today. There were children in those services in that church whose parents weren't followers of Jesus, and there were parents who had kids who weren't followers of Jesus just like today. Unlike today, there are no slaves in this room. There are no masters, not legally. There are, I'm sure, hopefully not in this room, but legally, it is against the law. But let me kind of paint a picture for you of what that looked like back then. In the first century, this was a common practice to have slaves. Now, most of these slaves were actually taken in as spoils, if you will, of war. And at this time, the Roman Empire was taken over the world. So they had lots of people they were conquering and they would just take them as slaves. But listen to this, those weren't the only people who were slaves. There were actually citizens of that society who would sell themselves to people, the wealthy. They would sell themselves to people knowing that there was coming a day where they would be out of slavery and they would actually take the money that they were given and they would give it to their family so that they could live. They were educated people. But seriously, like these slaves, actually, some of them were taken in not to just do work, but to literally be the teachers for the children in the household. There was a different kind of mentality they had and obviously wrong, but it's how they lived. And not only were their husbands and wives in the household and parents and kids in the household, there were also slaves and masters. And the principle of slave and master is more on the lines of employer employee than it is what we think of today in slavery and the horrible thing that happened in our country 100 to 150 years ago. That's not what we're talking about at all. But I want you to hear today, too, that there were two-thirds at least of the population of that day and time. And we have a system that say at least 90% before the end of it that two-thirds of the population of Rome were slaves. So picture this. There were slaves in the congregation. These slaves were actually free to come and go. They could legally be physically beaten, even though most didn't, according to the historical records that we have. They could, but usually they were really treated with respect. They could actually come and go and they pleased. They could actually have jobs aside from the slavery if it didn't mess that up. I mean, it was a different kind of thing. And there were actually slaves who were allowed and permitted to come inside the church as followers of Jesus. Their masters would allow them to do that. And so there were plenty of them who gave their lives to Christ. And I don't know if they ask a question or Paul just thought this might be something good they need to know. The ins and outs, the ramifications or the questions they had. But for some reason Paul didn't just stop at husbands and wives and children and parents. He said slaves and masters and I got a feeling I know why. Because they were dealing with how to live in the slavery they were in, whether they put themselves in that slavery or not. And Paul also had something to say about employers or the masters here in this verse specifically. Listen, there's a certain way that employers should treat their employees. Amen. I thought everybody would hit that one. There's a certain way and a certain reason that employees do what they're asked. And there's a certain way and a reason for how employers treat their employees. And if this cycle works correctly, it's amazing. And so that's what we're going to look at today. Obviously we can't come from the standpoint of slaves and masters because none of you are. But most of you, unless you're between jobs or, and let me just say this too, even if you are and you don't have a job currently and you're looking for one, praise the Lord, we're praying with you. But let me just say this. Working is not just what you get paid for. Praise the Lord. Listen, I mean listen, 90% of the people who work here are not paid at our church. Listen, when you volunteer, you are working. I didn't mean to say that, but that's true. So let's look today at what Paul says, what the Holy Spirit asked Paul to write down. And go watch in chapter three. We'll begin in verse 22 and we'll actually go through chapter four, verse one because that probably should be pushed with that. So let's look at it together. Verse 22, slaves in all things obey those who are your masters on earth. Not with external eye service, external service, which basically is eye service and some of your versions may say that as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. If you don't hear anything else, read that verse right there. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done and that without partiality. Masters, grant justice and fairness to your slaves, knowing that you too have a master who is in heaven. I want to give you two things today or actually two points and there are things inside the points, but there are really two points and you know what they are, right? There's God's Word and what he said to those who are under authority, God's Word to employees. And then the second thing is what we see is God's Word to employers. So let's just go ahead and take the first one. God's Word to employees, here's what he says, here's the command. It's really easy. Slaves in all things obey those who are your masters on earth. You say, Tom, is it literally slaves? Well, some versions say servants, some versions say bond servants. This word do loss was actually used first as a bond servant thing where people would literally sell themselves into slavery as a job. Most would be released by the time they were 30, but most had a duration of about seven years that they had to work. Was he talking to slaves? He was talking to slaves, but I want you to do this today. I want you to wrap your head around this. This passage is not about slavery. And as bad as it is and as bad as I got a feeling Paul, because he wrote the book of Philemon, I challenge you to go read that, also thought it was wrong. He did not write it in a way to abolish slavery. Even though his own mind, he wanted it gone. I'm saying that today because I don't want us to miss the essence of what this is. I also don't want you to leave today. And maybe you've read this passage in the past sometime and you've always thought, man, slaves and slavery and masters and man, the Bible is condoning that. No, Bible is not. But what the Bible has done is it's given us a reality check and basically God is saying, I know that this happened and I know it is happening, but how do you handle it inside of it? Does that make sense? Wherever you are, how are you who you are? What are you like as a Christian? As a Christian, now if you're not a Christian today, this might not mean much, but if you are, Paul exhorts us, this is how we live as Christians. So the first point, God's word to those under authority, slaves. And then he says this in all things. You say, Tom, what does that mean? Everything, everything, things you like, things you don't like. How about this? Because I know you've got this figured out because, you know, I have a boss. He's not here today. If I want to tell him any of this, I will. Y'all got it? Vance Pittman comes around the offices. He's the boss. In all things. People say, you know, my boss, Tom, you don't know my situation. My boss, he makes bad decisions. But he also has a different view and a different angle than you do. It's a whole lot easier to look at it from your point of view than it is to look at it from his when you've never had his. Amen? In all things. Whether you like it, whether you don't like it, which you think it's wrong or if you think it's right. If it's easy for you to do or if it's not so easy for you to do. The Bible says, in all things obey, this word obey is a word that literally means to hear. But it's not a verb that means to hear in the sense of just to audibly get knowledge. It's actually a word that means to hear and then to do what has been heard. Hence, obey. If you have kids, you know what this is like, right? Because you say this a lot at your house. Did you hear me? What you don't mean is, did you audibly hear me? What you mean is, go do what you heard, right? So here Paul says, slaves in all things, do what you've heard. Do what you know to do. Obey what you've been told. Whatever you've been told, do this. Here's what I want you to do right now. I want you in your mind to say this, am I a follower of Jesus Christ? If the answer is yes, Paul wrote this to you. In all things, as an employee, obey your, and he says here master, but literally it's translated fleshly person, all right? Fleshly Lord, one who is in the flesh, one who has on skin. Almost like he's trying to say that we have another boss who doesn't have on skin. Is anybody with me? Obey those in authority over you who have on skin, who are in the flesh, your fleshly master in all things. Obey them. Now, here's what I'd like to do. I want to lay out four truths right here for you, for them, and then we'll lay out two at the end for the masters of things that we see after Paul says, obey those who are in authority over you in all things, what this looks like. The first thing I want you to see is an employee who is a maturing Jesus follower is a person of integrity. What does it look like to obey a Jesus follower is a person who's got some integrity. You say, Tom, where do you get that? Look at the very next part of verse 22. The Bible says, who are masters of the flesh? Look at this, not with external service. This is a word that's literally translated I service in some versions of the scripture, and that's a great way to translate it. What does that mean? Only when the boss is around, that's when you do it. We never do that to Vance. Ever. Tell him I said that, okay. Listen, when Vance walks around, people start. Oh, hey, Pastor Vance, we're just praying. I'm joking, kind of. You know, as human beings, we have a tendency to do that a lot. Only do what we're supposed to do when the person who could give us our job or make us lose our job is there. But he said, that's not how Jesus followers do it. Jesus followers aren't people who only give I service. This word I service couldn't mean this if you think about it long enough. Examples of this, look at this. Has someone ever come to your house and you don't, like, it looks spotless, but the truth is, is if they opened up the drawers in your house, it would be rough. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's like making up a bed, but then the sheet that's underneath is like all crumpled up. You know what I'm saying? Hiding the reality of a situation, deceiving people with falsehoods, making others perceptions of the situation look true when they are actually false. That's that word. And here's what he did. When he said not with I service, not with just what can be seen by the boss. This word not as small a word as it is, a very important word. In the Greek language, there were two ways to say that. You could actually add a prefix onto the verb and it could say one thing, or you could say another word, which is exactly what Paul did here. And it's like he's saying this, okay? It's called the, in the Greek language, it's called the strong negative may. Here's what it means. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever do this. Paul uses it quite a bit in his writings, but when it is used, it's one of those things. If I'm not just giving you a great proverb, I'm not just trying to teach you a small lesson. I'm telling you, never do this. As a Christian, Christians never should do that. Don't give just I service. Well, Tom, if we give I service, what does that mean? He clears that up next by saying this. I service at its core is really pleasing men. You're a man, pleaser. You're not worried about pleasing God. You're worried about pleasing man because he said, obey your earthly master, the one who has flesh on, as if he's about to say, and he is, that we are actually working for God. That our boss, we have a boss on the earth, but the boss that we really have is the one who is in heaven. If he were looking at us, how would we work? How would that change? How would we do it differently? Not men pleasing, one who tries a man pleasers, one who tries to please men at the sacrifice. Listen to this, a principle. Here's what they look like. When passed over for a job, they don't work as hard. Is that you? They only do what they're asked, the minimum. They don't have any initiative. They're in constant need of being checked by their supervisor. Is that you? Their motivation to do their job well is only for the purpose of impressing other people. They work only to move up, and if they don't move up, they leave. That's what man pleasing looks like. They're a person of integrity. If they say they're going to work, they do. My dad, when I graduated college, I got a job, but a few years later, my dad started a company and he wanted me to come help him run it. I was only at the time, 26 years old. Those of you who are older than 26, no, a 26-year-old, God bless you, you're 26. But I thought I could run it, it didn't work so well. My dad was the owner, so you know what happens when your dad's the owner, it doesn't matter. The hundred employees also thought I couldn't run the company, which they were right. But I saw this over and over and over and over again. My dad taught me how to hire and to terminate people, and I was terminating this young lady one day, and she was taken aback when I told her I would be terminating her. And she asked me why, and I said it's because you never come to work. At the most, three days per week, that baffled her. Here's what I said. If you had told me you were only going to come three days to work, I would never have hired you. I thought your integrity told me you were going to be here every day, not just three. Do you understand that your integrity is on the line? We're talking about man-pleasing or eye-service. How do you work as if unto the Lord or as if to your boss to be a man-pleaser? Be a person of integrity. That's what a follower of Jesus is. You say, Tom, you don't know my boss, it doesn't matter. I didn't read a stipulation from Paul about a bad boss, a bad master. He said slaves obey in all things, all things. Second thing, truth number two, an employee who is a maturing Jesus follower is also a God-fearing person. He says not with external eye-service, those who merely please God, listen to this, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Fearing the Lord means to habitually, willingly, continually fear. This word fear means to honor, to respect, constantly the Lord. One commentator says it like this. He says that a fear of the Lord is the leading principle of Christian conduct. You say, Tom, how does that look? He tells us with sincerity of heart. This word sincerity is a word that means single focus, sharp, only focusing on one thing, not several things, with sincerity of heart, who you are, who it is that God is, who's living through you. Fear the Lord. If I were going to kind of put this together and say what this says, just in these last parts of this one verse, it'd go something like this. Don't fear men, fear God. Work like Jesus is your boss, because he is. Do y'all understand what I'm saying here? Do y'all understand what Paul means when he says do this, don't do this, and here's why, because that's what Christians, followers of Jesus, that's what they're like. And he didn't give any indication that you could never, no, let me just say this. Pastor Vance covered this a couple weeks ago when he was talking about marriage. Don't sin for your boss. If he asks you to steal or cheat, no. That's worth losing your job, unfortunately. Never sin, but what he asks you to do, what she asks you to do, do it as to the Lord, as if the Lord Jesus Christ were standing there right in front of you, asking you to do it himself, because he is. So what kind of worker are you? Are you a man pleaser or are you a God pleaser? Number three, Paul goes on. In verse 23, here's truth number three, an employee who is a maturing Jesus follower is a diligent worker. Paul says in verse 23, whatever you do, this is a relative sentence, all right? It means you say, Tom, what about this little, yep, that, what about, what about, yep, what about that? Yes, that too. Whatever you do, do it heartily. What's interesting here is in our language, the first whatever you do and the next one do it heartily, the two words do, are two different Greek words. They're not the same word. When he said it the first time, he said whatever you practice, whatever it is you're involved with, all right? Whatever it is your job is, wherever you work, wherever your, your income is coming from or your volunteerism is, whatever you're doing, right? The next word is the word we get our word energy from and it has to do with how you work, right? Energetically. Hard. Christians should work hard. Quiet in here now. You got quiet. Listen, you don't work as hard because somebody's working hard. I mean, is that why you work hard? Do you work not as hard because if you do, you're still outpacing everyone else and so you're seen as the hardest worker? Or do you know when you lay your head on the pillow at night that you are actually not doing everything you could do? That's that word. Work heartily. Do it with all your might. Few years ago, I went to a country in East Asia and a country that's not so prone to accepting the gospel or people who share it. I can't even tell you its name. When I got there, they asked me to teach a lesson, they actually asked me to teach three, one of the lessons was a lesson on employee-employer relationships. And I didn't really know one, to be honest, it was the hardest of the three to write. One was dating, that was really easy, I had that one all together. One was the will of God, that was a little more difficult, but hey, it's in there. But this one on employee-employer relationship was a little bit more taxing. It took a little more digging, it wasn't as easy. When I got there, I asked one of the brothers in Christ there, I said, why do you guys want me to teach on this? Their answer astounded me. They said, we want you to teach on this, listen to this, because when we follow what the scripture says, and we've read it, we know. Do whatever you do, work hard for God. God is your boss. Do whatever the employer says, we know that. And when we read it, we do that. The problem is, is that when we do it, we're followed. When we leave work, people follow us. When we go to the market, people follow us. When we go to meet with our congregation, they follow us. And once they follow us for a little while, after they've written all the places we've been, and they follow us, they arrest us. They take our cell phones, they take anything we have on us, and they take all the names down of all the people that we know, and they arrest them too. They bring them in for questioning, and they want to know what this is and why this and this, because they followed me to my fellowship. Here's what he said, he said, Tom, the reason they arrest me, the reason they even know to follow me, is because in our country, the government has figured out that the hardest workers are Christians. And all they do is go through the plants, and they see who's working the hardest, and they follow. You know what my first thought was? You can't do that in America. I mean, generally, am I by myself or am I right? You know what's sad is that we, I don't want us to just hear this today. I want us to do what our fellow believers overseas do and follow it. What if you were the hardest worker where you are? You say, Tom, would it make a difference? Listen, in that country, not always at making a difference, people are following with them who are working hard, but people who are arresting them are giving their lives to Christ. You see how you work matters. What you do for God isn't just what you do in this room, or in your small group, or even in just your quiet time. What you do matters. Paul knew that. Slavery was wrong, but he said, we're not going to get out of it like that. We're going to get out of it by loving our masters and by obeying and watching their hearts turn. That's how we're going to get out of it. A maturing Jesus follower is a diligent, hard worker, and then he says, as unto the Lord, like you were doing it for the Lord who is standing in front of you. Serve your boss like you would serve Jesus. So here's my question. Are you working the very best you can? Are you known in the office or the plant as a slacker? Are you known as someone who shirts responsibility or pushes everything away from you or someone who's constantly on their cell phone? The Bible says that there are rewards and consequences. The reward is for people who follow. You know my dad always told me, you reap what you sow, right? You sow a tomato, you're not going to get corn, right? If you're doing that, let me know. We can make some money. That's not how it happens. He said, if you sow, listen, your reaper reward and the reward will be given by God and it will be his inheritance. Your inheritance is his, what he owns. But if you don't, the one who does wrong, he says, there's also a consequence. The consequence, not working to him, is that you'll be repaid just what you've done. And he said that won't be with partiality. Like God won't say, well, he probably didn't mean to do that. No, no, here's what John MacArthur said about it. He said, the earthly master or boss may not give the servant, and this may be where you're living today. May not give the servant what he deserves, but the Lord will. He is the one who will assure the eternal compensation is what it should be. You say, Tom, my boss, listen, don't worry about your boss. Your answer to my boss is Jesus. It's not the God. It's not the lady who signs the checks or who checks your time card. That's not who it is. Jesus is the boss over them. So that's truth number four. An employee who is a maturing Jesus follower knows who the boss really is. Here's what I want to ask you. You may be a Jesus follower, but how mature are you in your faith to realize that you aren't working for the man. You're working for the man. Jesus. Paul then gives a little reminder to us. He said, it is the Lord Christ you serve. And I love this. The way he writes this, he only writes it twice. He said, it is the curious Christos. Here's how we translate that. I'm going to bring it to you. Okay. Here we go. Yahweh Messiah, God Messiah, God Savior. It is the God and Savior Jesus Christ whom you serve. And listen, serve is not past tense. It's not just what he lived. It is actually current and ongoing. It's probably the best picture of this, if I can think of it. This is what I've read about Mother Teresa. She wrote one time, listen to this. "When I wipe the wounds and the sores of those whom I minister to, I literally think I'm wiping Jesus' sores." You say, God doesn't care anything about my work. You spend probably 30 to 60 hours a week where you are and you don't think God cares about that time? You said, Tom, you don't know how difficult it is. You're right. I've had difficult circumstances in my life too as far as jobs are concerned. But listen, God does know. And listen, your boss isn't, your boss, God is your boss. That's your earthly boss, but you have a larger, more powerful, more influential boss than that. He tells you exactly where you want you. I talked to a guy after the service just a moment ago. And he said, Tom, I'm thinking about changing jobs because my job is so difficult. And I said, well, let me just, let me leave you with this. My dad told me, he said, Tom, don't ever leave a job because there are problems. A couple reasons. Number one, problems will be at the other place too, just to let you know. But the main reason is you should ask God, are you finished with me where I am? God's got you there for a purpose and a reason. And he wants you to live that out as a mature follower of Jesus Christ. Because there are people who need your influence there. I don't know that we realize that, that we realize that much, to be honest with you. But there are consequences. Paul then shifts gears and says, okay, master's your turn. Employers. Now this is where most of y'all were like, whew, glad he got to this. Because my employer is something else. I'm a worker, but that guy, that lady, wow, I wish they were here. I'm going to get them to CD. Listen to me. If you're not a Christian, this is bad teaching. It's good teaching, but you won't see it like that. If you're a Christian in this room or if you watch this on the internet or if you get the CD and you listen to it and you're a Christian and you're an employer, I cannot overstate the importance that you are to this kingdom. And I'm not even talking about the money portion or the giving of jobs portion. I'm talking about your portion and treating people the way they ought to be treated. So he says, masters, because remember, there are probably masters in the audience. Grant fairness and justice to your slaves. Excuse me, justice and fairness to your slaves. Grant justice and fairness to your slaves. This is God's word to those who are employers. And I don't know if you are an employer here today or not, but I can say this is the mandate. The truth number one that we have from this passage, an employer who is a maturing Jesus follower is a giving person. You say, Tom, how do you know? The word grant means to give. Here's what you give. You give justice. You give fairness. I told you about my job when I first got out of school and my dad trusted me a whole lot more than I would ever trust myself and he worked me through all that. But I remember one Christmas. My dad said he came up to the plant and it was the last day before we were going to be there. I don't know the exact date, but it was the last day we were going to be at the plant before Christmas. And my dad said, Tom, do we have the bonuses ready? And I looked at him like he was joking, you know. I was like, well dad, it's been a rough year and I just looked at the bank account and unless we're giving everyone a quarter, looks like bonuses are out. And he looked at me with the most serious face and he said, unacceptable. I said, I don't know what to tell you, pops. I don't know. There's nothing in the account. He said, I know that. I said, why are you asking? He said, because Tom, never forget this, at Thanksgiving, we give a turkey. We give everybody a turkey. My dad would line up these crates and everybody would go out with their turkey. He said, at Christmas we give bonuses. That's what we do. Said that, I know that. He said, I'll handle it. A couple hours went by, he came back to the plant. He sits this bag on my desk and he said, there you go. And in this bag, I open it up and there's all kinds of envelopes with money inside cash. Dad walked out, I looked at my sister and I said, did he rob a bank? Where did he go? Dad came back and she said, Dad came back in my office and I said, Dad, where did you get the money? He said, my savings account. He said, son, these people have done what we've asked them to do all year. Sometimes they would come in early, sometimes they would stay late. Sometimes they would work on Saturdays. They deserve it. Because we've made some bad decisions and our business hasn't been great this year, we're not going to punish them. My dad literally is the picture of this verse. Andy Stanley said a few years ago, in one of his sermons, I can't remember which one, and it vaguely comes to mind and it's actually something I'm going to talk about at the end as well. He said, employers, listen, you have been given the influence you have to influence it for those who don't have influence. See, you think you've been giving it so you can wheel the power and make this happen and take the money and put it in your bank account and make everything just happen the way you want it to and you control everybody and everybody should listen whether they understand or want to understand or not. The truth is, we've been given the authority to leverage it for those people who don't have the authority. Isn't that beautiful? Listen, Jesus went to the cross because we couldn't. He leveraged the influence that he had for our good and everyone. Jesus said the first is last and the last is first. You want to be the greatest servant? Be the servant of all. If you wash your feet, not my feet, Lord, if you don't let me wash your feet, you won't have any part in me, Jesus said. Jesus got down, washed every foot there because that's what people who are in authority over other people do. Do you serve your employees? An employer who's a maturing person, follower of Jesus is a giving person, but then secondly, an employer who is a maturing Jesus follower understands that they have a master too. Paul says, "Grant justice and fairness to your slaves knowing that you too have a master in heaven." If you know you're under authority, you're going to treat those under authority and your authority better, right? Do you realize that you're not the top of the food chain? That as a follower of Jesus, what you do matters and not to grant justice and fairness to your employees, why do you expect any from him? Those who have been forgiven and given justice want to pass it on. A couple of things before we go today. A couple of takeaways I want you to have. If you're an employee, first takeaway is this. Number one, you, when you fall under the authority of another, you fall under the authority of God. You say, "Tom, I obey God, but I don't obey my boss. Here's the deal. Then you don't obey God." You find yourself disobeying your boss when it's not sin. You'll find yourself disobeying the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Secondly, the way you obey those in authority over you is the way you are currently obeying God. Do you hear that? The way I obey my authority is the way I'm obeying God right now. And then number three, the manner in which you work proves your understanding that you are working for God. Listen, if you're lazy, which is the propensity of human beings, it shows your view of God. If you work heartily, it shows your view of God. And then takeaways for those who are in authority, those employers, who will be done. Number one, you've been given authority to leverage the authority that you have for those who don't have it. That ought to be a freeing but very responsible, laden sentence. Use it for them. Number two, the way you treat those under your authority is proof of your level of maturity in Jesus. You want to know if you're really growing in God what kind of boss are you? And then last, the way you treat those under your authority will prove your view of God's authority over you. You know, I never forget what those brothers and sisters overseas said that day. And also putting that with what Clyde said, that our reaction to authority will be the greatest outward evidence of our fellowship of him. You know, after I went and reassured those believers that day, I had to, to be honest, to real check in my spirit about hitting that really hard again and saying to them, "You've got to work hard." Because the Bible says that's what Jesus followers do. Because I knew that if I said that, some of them were going to be arrested again. Many of them were going to be arrested who were friends of friends of friends for the first time. And they were going to be in a major persecution because of it. Not only that, they weren't going to get raises, they weren't going to get promotions. They were never going to make it to the top. The harder they worked, the longer they stayed at the bottom. But they worked like they were working for God. We have a city that's lost, and we want them to know Christ. And for those of you who are working that constant job, that's your best avenue. You're going to see people at the grocery. You're going to see people at the department store for just a very short time. You're even going to see people in your neighborhood for short times unless you invite them over to your house. You're going to see them as you're walking. But when you are at work, you say, "Tom, I can't do that. I can't listen. Live your life as a follower of God." And whatever has to happen, has to happen from one standpoint. But listen, smart, shrewd, not manipulative and especially lazy. You work. People will know. You work. People will ask. Can you as employers, you treat people fairly. Your employees are going to snuggle up to you and want to know what you got. My dad, he would come to the plant because we had two plants. He was at one. I was at another. And the people at my plant wish my dad was at their plant. But I found out why. My dad would come to the plant and he would walk in. And when he would go to every desk in the plant, you know my dad would do? He never asked about production. He never asked about raw materials, the resources we had or if they had it what they needed necessarily. He never even talked about work. In fact, if you went up behind my dad and you listened to him, my dad would be, "This is what my dad would do." He'd sit down and he'd say, "Hey, I heard about your mom. How's she doing?" You come up behind him again and you'd hear my dad say, "You know, I heard about your son. I heard he can really play baseball. How's that going?" You know, as an employer, people want to know what they want to know everywhere else. Do you care about him? Can you imagine what kind of world we would have if our employers and our employees did what they were supposed to do? But oh, you can. We have a responsibility to follow his word and to be who we can be. His life through me so that your coworkers or your employees or your boss can get a glimpse of what Jesus really looks like. So let me encourage you, if you're not the hardest worker at your place, make a determination to be the one. I promise you, God will use it for His glory. People will come to know Jesus through your work ethic.